Welcome to the World of Animal-Assisted Therapy and Animal-Assisted Activities

NOW AVAILABLE -- A Distance Learning course in AAT/AAA

AAT and AAA: A Premise and a Promise   Definitions How to get started

Publications and Other Resources

Links and Academic Courses Survey Course in AAT/AAA at Camden County College in Blackwood, NJ NOW AVAILABLE! -- a Distance Learning course in AAT/AAA through Harcum College

The "Link" Between Animal Abuse, Domestic Violence and Child Abuse

A wide range of human health professionals and practitioners recognize what many people in the animal caregiving fields and everyday pet owners have known for years: that pets can be good for our health and well-being. Companion animals are being introduced into the therapeutic regimens of many health care institutions: nursing homes, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, psychiatric instiutions and others. Therapeutic riding programs improve the motor skills and coordination of the physically challenged. Pets help inmates in correctional facilities and juvenile offenders to learn empathy and compassion. Autistic children swim with dolphins. In short, wherever people have special needs, someone with creativity and an animal with the proper temperament can probably create an imaginative way to being pets and people together for mutual benefit.

Web site created By Phil Arkow 37 Hillside Road Stratford, NJ 08084

Phil Arkow teaches the Survey and Independent Study courses on Animal-Assisted Therapy and Animal-Assisted Activities at Camden County College in Blackwood, NJ, and the Distance Learning course in AAT/AAA through Harcum College in Bryn Mawr, PA. He writes "Pet Pals," the Courier-Post's biweekly newspaper column on pet care and has authored or edited 9 key reference books and innumerable articles on animal-assisted therapy, the human-animal bond, humane education, violence prevention, and animal shelter management. He chairs the Latham Foundation's international Child and Animal Abuse Prevention Project, under whose auspices he wrote three manuals to cross-train employees of animal shelters, child prevention agencies, and domestic violence prevention programs to recognize and report each others' forms of family violence. He also edited three textbooks on the human-animal bond and its therapeutic applications: Animal-Assisted Therapy & Activities: A Study, Resource Guide and Bibliography for the Use of Companion Animals in Selected Therapies, The Loving Bond and Dynamic Relationships in Practice. He has served on national boards and advisory committees of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Delta Society, the National Animal Control Association, and the American Humane Association. He owns a business which produces fundraising materials for humane societies nationwide. He lectures internationally at veterinary and humane conferences on a wide variety of topics.

Need more information? E-mail arkowpets@snip.net